Sunday, April 2nd, 2006

Five new features and a fix

1. Recent “users with your books. People tell me that “Users with your books,” available from any profile page (example), is one of the most fun things about LibraryThing. But it can be hard to keep up with changes. To alleviate that problem, I’ve added a “recent” option, which restricts itself to books added in the last two weeks—both new users and old ones adding books. Click on the number and you’ll see those books in their catalog.

2. Permanent catalog links. Many users have expressed frustration at not being able to send people to a particular page, sort, tag, author or view of their catalog. As I revealed on the Google Group, most of these can be forced by skillful URL manipulation, but the rules are somewhat complex. To cut the Gordian Knot I’ve added a “permanent link” link at the bottom of the catalog view. Just copy that (a “right click,” or whatever) and you’re set.

3. Entry and review date charts. The “fun statistics” page, available from any profile (example), now shows charts for when books were entered and when they were reviewed.

4. Searching for blank tags. By popular request, from now on, you can leave the search field empty when you search for tags, and it will give you all the books that have no tags.

5. You and no other. The “fun statistic” page also includes a new list of all the books you share with just one other person and who that person is. The feature, termed “You and no other” or, if you prefer Medieval French, “Vous et nul autre” is just “resting” on that page.

Even before the feature, people have been blogging about this particular oddity, and others, which springboard blog discussion about reading tastes. I hope to create a whole new page of such “meme lists.” My current ideas are:

Lonely books. Books only you own. (“Why do you own it? Should others read it?”)